Duration: 20 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Problem-solving
- Valuing people and nature
Brief Description:
Teams share notes, assign roles, and create a build plan that includes material-saving rules
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
- Builds problem-solving by converting observations into a plan with roles and steps
- Develops valuing people and nature by setting resource rules before building.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
- Problem-solving: write a step-by-step build plan and assign roles.
- Problem-solving: choose one stability strategy (base first / reinforce corners / add braces).
- Valuing people and nature: agree on two resource rules (reuse pile, measure before snapping, avoid waste).
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Apply planning and reasoning to a 3D construction task
- Connect resource constraints to responsible decision-making.
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- Team plan sheet + role cards
- Chart paper + markers
- Constraint sheet (materials limit + reuse rule).
Preparation notes
- Pre-pack each team’s materials in a tray (no refills until after Trial 1 reflection).
- Prepare a “Try-next” menu card for teams that get stuck.
Guided Questions
- “What should we build first: base or top?”
- “How will we make corners strong?”
- “How will we make sure everyone has a job?”
- “What will we do with broken pieces?”
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- “Does everyone agree on the plan? What is your team’s first step?”
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Challenge: Teams argue too long.
- Tip: Use a quick vote + choose a leader to finalize the plan in 30 seconds.
- Challenge: Teams waste spaghetti early.
- Tip: Add “reuse tray” and rule: “Reuse once before taking new.”